Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Eroticon Fallout II: The Evening, Day 1

After a long period of hustle, bustle and other things which may or may not rhyme with "Russell", a break - often with food - is almost always exactly what you need. In a high-energy environment like Eroticon, whereas the temptation is to say something like "FUCK YEAH, LET'S KEEP THIS PARTY GOING!!!", it's easy to wear yourself out. Nevertheless, Harper Eliot had taken it upon herself to organise an evening of readings and cabaret called "Aural Sex" (geddit?) in Kennington that night. I was keen to go, but had a few hours to fill before that.We corralled the troops, and before long, I found myself with Jilly, Blacksilk, Lady P and Emma Whispers in the restaurant area of the nearby Travelodge, the will to grab a hearty meal coupled with simply not wanting to go anywhere either expensive or far away. After a brief wave to Ruby Goodnight (who was randomly in the same restaurant), we ordered a few pretty standard meals while wondering what exactly possessed them to have the music channel on at such a volume (and why Emma seemed to know the words to all the songs; I, admittedly, have never heard of a Bassline Junkie). This reminded me quite strongly of the escape and quiet meal we had during the Erotic Meet Christmas party - a slightly different lineup, perhaps, but nonetheless food with lovely people... and quite nice it was, to boot.We ended up in Blacksilk's hotel room and... no, this isn't going in the direction you think, really it isn't... after a lot of banter (and some very tired limbs in my case) we made our way to the venue in Kennington, ready for some Aural Sex... okay, that one was deliberate.I'd talk about how the venue wasn't very good, but you don't need to hear that. The event - although it started late, but I'd always expected it would - was fun. Readings I've often found are of variable quality, but I certainly liked all of these, and the cabaret performers did a good job of compèring the whole shebang, eliciting more than a few laughs along the way. It's not a very common experience to get troll sex, rhyming plastic love and stripping from a strait-laced anti-sex campaigner within the same evening (or ever, really), but that we got, and in abundance.

Jilly and I had to leave in a bit of a hurry afterwards (as we didn't have the luxury of lodging in central London and were dependent on trains), but I was incredibly pleased we'd taken the time to mess about with our friends and stick it out for Aural Sex. Last year's Eroticon had had a meal and a chat as the end tag, but I was certainly despondent as I left - again, due to the fact that I was train-dependent - and the chance to do it all again, without cutting anything short, was certainly appreciated. Home turf advantage, I suppose.Oh, and the fact that there was another entire day to go... which reminds me...